Department for Transport

Driving Licences

Lord Berkeley: To ask His Majesty's Government how manyapplications for driving licences from people with a notifiable medical condition are outstanding; what is the target time for responding to those applications; and when they expect response times to return to the levels they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: As of 16 November, there were 174,687 driving licence applications in progress where a medical condition must be investigated before a licence can be issued. This figure includes new applications, notifications and renewal applications as well as the more usual in progress figure, which is around 120,000 at any one time. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency expects to return to pre-pandemic turnaround times for medical applications by January 2023. All other backlogs were eliminated earlier this year. Of the total of 174,687 applications in progress, 71,323 were received more than 90 days ago. The length of time taken to deal with an application depends on the medical condition(s) involved and whether further information is required from third parties, for example NHS healthcare professionals, before a decision on whether to issue a licence can be made. Simple cases can often be processed quickly but some of the more complex cases with multiple medical conditions can take much longer. The DVLA’s business plan target for 2022/23 is to process 90% of new applications within 90 days from October 2022. It is important to note that the majority of applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing they have not been told not to drive by a doctor or optician.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Space Technology: Small Businesses

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessmentthey have made of the potential impact on small businesses of introducing the Accelerator Programme Grants provided byWestcott Accelerator and Incubation Programme.

Lord Callanan: The Accelerator Programme Grants provided by Westcott Accelerator and Incubation Programme has been devised by the Satellite Applications Catapult and is funded by the Buckinghamshire Enterprise Zone. It is a locally resourced and evaluated initiative designed to support the Westcott Space Cluster.

Department of Health and Social Care

Gambling: Clinics

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty's Government howmany more NHS gamblingclinics are being planned; and where those clinics will be situated.

Lord Markham: The National Health Service will open an additional seven specialist gambling clinics by the end of 2023/24, to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan’s commitment to establish 15 such clinics in England. While the locations of these clinics have not yet been confirmed, NHS England aims to have a clinic in each region in England.

Sickle Cell Diseases: Prescriptions

Baroness Benjamin: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord Markham on 26 October (HL2576), how many people with sickle cell disease (1) are not eligible for prescriptions, and (2) have purchased a pre-payment certificate in the last five years.

Lord Markham: The information requested is not held centrally.

Evusheld

Lord Mendelsohn: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the report RAPID C-19 Oversight Group report: review of Evusheld by the RAPID C-19 Oversight Group, published on 6 October, how many members of the RAPID C-19 Oversight Group were (1) full time clinicians or doctors, and (2) clinicians who treat immunocompromised patients.

Lord Mendelsohn: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the report RAPID C-19 Oversight Group report: review of Evusheld by the RAPID C-19 Oversight Group, published on 6 October, how many members of the RAPID C-19 Oversight Group (1) have published research in the field of COVID-19, and (2) were members of SAGE and the JCVI.

Lord Mendelsohn: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the report RAPID C-19 Oversight Group report: review of Evusheld by the RAPID C-19 Oversight Group, published on 6 October, how many members of RAPID C-19 Oversight Group were (1) patient charity representatives, and (2) patient representatives.

Lord Markham: RAPID C-19 is a multi-agency initiative which includes representatives from the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England and the devolved administrations. Its review of Evusheld sought advice from a National Health Service expert working group and the Prophylaxis Oversight Group. RAPID C-19 contains nine clinicians with a range of expertise. While no members of RAPID C-19 or the Prophylaxis Oversight Group are immunologists, NHS expert working group has three immunology specialists. There is one member of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies in RAPID C-19 and three in the NHS expert working group and three in the Prophylaxis Oversight Group. While there are no members of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in RAPID C-19, it includes two scientific experts with published peer reviewed literature on COVID-19. There are no patient charity or patient representatives in RAPID C-19’s membership.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Green Climate Fund

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the UK’s $288 million (USD) reported shortfall in meeting funding requests from the Green Climate Fund.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: The UK remains committed to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and, as one of the largest donors, has provided almost £1.5 billion to date. We have given the green light to make our £264 million payment this financial year, well in advance of the next GCF Board meeting in March. We have paid £185 million of this already.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Environment Protection

Lord Randall of Uxbridge: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any,to use the extension to the publication of environmental targets required by the Environment Act 2021 todevelop a terrestrial protected areas target in order to help meet the UK's commitment to protecting 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030.

Lord Randall of Uxbridge: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to make a statement on the key programmes that will enable delivery of the environmental targets required by the Environment Act 2021.

Lord Randall of Uxbridge: To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to bring forward the Environment Act 2021 environmental targets legislation, and whether this will be before the UN Convention on Biodiversity (COP15) Part II meetings in Montreal from 7 to 19 December.

Lord Randall of Uxbridge: To ask His Majesty's Government whetherthey will use the extension to the deadline for publication of targets under the Environment Act 2021 to develop a terrestrial protected areas target, as proposed by the consultation on the targets and to help meet the UK’s commitment to protecting 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030.

Lord Randall of Uxbridge: To ask His Majesty's Government whether theywill bring forward the legislation for targets under the Environment Act 2021 prior to the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in December.

Lord Randall of Uxbridge: To ask His Majesty's Government what arethe key programmes that will enable delivery of the targets under the Environment Act 2021.

Lord Benyon: As the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs set out in a written statement published on 28th October, we will continue to work at pace in order to lay draft statutory instruments as soon as practicable.  The Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) sets out the steps HM Government intends to take to improve the natural environment. The EIP will be reviewed to include an overview of delivery measures needed to meet targets and at least one interim target for each long-term target that has been set.

Sewage: Pollution Control

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: To ask His Majesty's Government who is responsible for the maintenance and accuracy of water quality monitors measuring sewage outflows; and whether it is possible for water companies to disable the monitors at critical times.

Lord Benyon: Water and Sewerage Companies have a regulatory obligation to monitor how long and how often their storm overflows discharge to the environment. This is called Event Duration Monitoring (EDM). We have increased the number of storm overflows monitored across the network from 5% in 2016 to almost 90% now monitored, and we will reach 100% cover by December 2023. Using powers in the landmark Environment Act, we will also significantly improve transparency by requiring companies to make discharge data available in near real time to the public and monitor water quality upstream and downstream of their assets. The Environment Agency has also instructed water companies to install new flow monitors on more than 2,000 wastewater treatment works to identify what is happening at those works during the sewage treatment process itself. The monitoring equipment and processes used by water companies are subject to scrutiny by the Environment Agency through inspection and audit. Where there is breach of permit conditions the Environment Agency may take enforcement action against the Water and Sewerage Company in line with its Enforcement and Sanctions Policy.

Home Office

Undocumented Migrants: English Channel

Lord Oates: To ask His Majesty's Government how many unauthorisedCross Channel migrants have been returned to France in each year since 2012.

Lord Murray of Blidworth: The Home Office publishes statistics on the number of returns from the UK in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’ on gov.uk. The latest data on returns from the UK by return destination country are published published in table Ret_D02 of the 'Returns Detailed Tables' on gov.uk which can be broken down by return type group. The latest data go up to the end of March 2022.The data are for all returns from the UK. We do not publish information on method of entry for the returnee i.e. if they are migrants who crossed the channel.table Ret_D02  (xlsx, 325.7KB)